Games with interesting "clash" mechanics?

[Squire Grooktook]

Basically when a player attack (or other action) intersects with an enemy attack at the same time and causes something unique to happen. Few examples:

-Beam dueling in G-Darius and Metal Black

-The infamous fake button mashing swordlocks in Samurai Showdown

-The clashes in Guilty Gear, Blazblue, and Arcana Heart where both players gain the ability to chain or cancel to another attack of their choice after two attacks intersect at the same time.

Genre doesn't matter. Just curious if there are anymore interesting examples out there.

[BIL]

You've probably already encountered it, but just in case: Ninja Spirit has a sadly under-utilised sword clash. Let a runner ninja get close and wait for their overhead chop - your own sword attack will clash with a distinct sound effect and knockback to both parties. In this case it's more of a penalty for letting them get close and live long enough to attack you.

More interestingly it works on samurai, who have far too much HP to casually swat down. Obviously you want to aggressively avoid being toe-to-toe with them, but if you're trapped and about to eat their katana (say, on st4.2's ceiling), clashing can provide a stay of execution followed up by switching to grenades and nuking 'em.

If the unfortunate Ninja Pit setpiece really had to be there, I think it'd have been interesting to incorporate this somehow - say, pinging off the sea of blades instead of slamming into them for instant death.

[Squire Grooktook]

Yeah, I actually thought of using the Sword on Ninja Pit. That property of the weapon is sadly underused. I also tried working out a few strats for stage 4 using the sword defensively against the samurai, but it's a bit too risky compared to long range strats.

Very neat little thing though. Makes it fun to play around with on stage 1 and 2 before shit gets real.

[guigui]

Sending projectile back with the sword in Sin & Punishment. Though it may not be qualified as "unique" since it occurs so many times.

[Squire Grooktook]

Sending projectile back with the sword in Sin & Punishment. Though it may not be qualified as "unique" since it occurs so many times.

That's fine, I meant more unique in the sense that it's a kind of special mechanic reserved for certain abilities or situations. Having it be a central aspect of the game is even better though. Means its fully fledged and not a throwaway gimmick (at least if the game is good, heh).

[Specineff]

Tech Romancer lets you beam duel with the mechs who have the capability.

[Xyga]

Sending projectile back with the sword in Sin & Punishment. Though it may not be qualified as "unique" since it occurs so many times.

That's fine, I meant more unique in the sense that it's a kind of special mechanic reserved for certain abilities or situations. Having it be a central aspect of the game is even better though. Means its fully fledged and not a throwaway gimmick (at least if the game is good, heh).

Definitely not central and it's only a few button mashing strikes, but the way you clash with that fleet admiral dude and send him through the window is almost 80's action epic. :p

[BIL]

^ that bit is just too fucking satisfying, especially the *crash* sound as he goes through the glass. I like to move the controller a bit during.

[mamboFoxtrot]

Smash Bros. has a hilariously convoluted clashing system. Almost as hilarious as Brawl Meta Kinght being able to just bypass the whole thing.

Sending projectile back with the sword in Sin & Punishment. Though it may not be qualified as "unique" since it occurs so many times.

That's fine, I meant more unique in the sense that it's a kind of special mechanic reserved for certain abilities or situations. Having it be a central aspect of the game is even better though. Means its fully fledged and not a throwaway gimmick (at least if the game is good, heh).

Definitely not central and it's only a few button mashing strikes, but the way you clash with that fleet admiral dude and send him through the window is almost 80's action epic. :p

It's more of a thing in the sequel. Quite a few bosses have melee attacks that you can parry with a slash, sometimes stunning them. For one boss it's completely mandatory.

If you're gonna list G-Darius and Metal Black, you might as well mention Border Down and Darius Burst as well.


I can't say I can really think of a game where something really interesting happens when two attacks meet, though. Everything that comes to mind is either just a simple clank/boink, or a button-mashing event.

[LEGENOARYNINLIA]

World Heroes 2 Jet has attacks clashing. KOF XII also had it, but it wasn't as fun in that one.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Various Issen techniques in the Onimusha series. Pretty much every hostile attack can fuel yours. Best explained by the 3's tutorial missions.

[BryanM]

-The infamous fake button mashing swordlocks in Samurai Showdown

That's fake too?!

I always knew King of the Monsters 2's grapples were phony baloney lies, with its prominent "mash the button, guy!" popup, but not Samurai Shodown nooooo

[Gespenst]

Dynasty Warriors Gundam (only tried the second one so far) has QTE when your melee clashes with enemy officer's (the more powerful they are the more complicated the QTE commands are if I recall) as opposed to simple button mashing in standard DW games.

[M.Knight]

Definitely not central and it's only a few button mashing strikes, but the way you clash with that fleet admiral dude and send him through the window is almost 80's action epic. :p

Yeah, the swordfight against Brad is truly exciting. One of the (numerous) highlights of the game.
I don't remember the sequel having such an impressive duel fight, the only one coming to my mind that came close to a duel is a poorly-made fighting game-like sequence. Well, there's the Hibaru Yaju fight in stage 3 that more or less fits the bill as well, and it's kinda cool, though not on the level of the Brad fight.

My addition to this thread would be the parry mechanic in the 3DS Shinobi. Any attack in the game (be it a projectile or a close-combat attack) can be parried with the right timing, and when that happens, you can immediatly launch a forward counterattack dashing move that looks and sounds quite visceral, not to mention beneficial for the score. It single-handedly sold me on the game.